Imagine – drawing performance meeting

Artists: Przemysław Branas, John Court, Mehdi Farajpour, Dariusz Fodczuk, Magda Grzybowska & Anna Wytych-Wierzgacz & Emilia Danilecka, Alastair MacLennan, Mineki Murata, Seiji Shimoda, Fiona Wright.

A line, a drawing in a context of performance art becomes a totally ephemeral form, often drawn only in the space or built in our imagination. The problem of the autonomy of the drawing as an art genre is extended into the space, time, an artist and the imagination of a spectator. Hence the appeal to the audience: “IMAGINE”.

Through a two-day review we will see nine performance of artists from Europe and Asia. Przemysław Branas will refer to the drawing in a most metaphorical way, as he will present a “sound drawing”. John Court, Fiona Wright and Alastair MacLennan will create their drawings in durational actions. Seiji Shimoda and Mineki Murata will do the same in more dynamic performances based in body art. Magda Grzybowska in her action that she will create with a dancer Anna Wytych and a chello player – Emilia Danilecka will refer to the architecture of the National Museum. A drawing on the characteristic skylight will be danced and played on a chello. Mehdi Farajpour will make a dance drawing using a shadow which has a special meaning in Persian culture. Dariusz Fodczuk will invite the public to draw with him making the audience a subject of the performance. The drawings created through the 2 day event together with their video registration will be displayed in the National Museum between December 14^th and 24^th.

The photo documentation of the meeting: http://ttt.wroclaw.pl/en/wystawy-ttt/imagine

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Performance Month – City Art Gallery of Kalisz

Performance is live art, it is time based and it happens in a specific place. A performer (or a group of performers) by connecting a space, site and time, undergoes an action that is presented to the public. In very specific cases the public may not be present or the notion of a public may not be clear. The action itself can also be unspecific and the presence or absence of a performance artist may also be unclear. The essence of a performance shifts the attention of the spectator towards the process of creation. This process provokes spontaneous reactions in him/her, causes a strong tension and prepares the ground for direct encounter in which a physical, psychic and mental interaction is strongly experienced.

Performance art in its early stage, when it was on the margin of art practice, was presented in spaces that were of minor importance, degraded, abandoned and unimportant for commercial art ventures. In Poland the process was similar – performance artists avoided so-called official galleries that were institutionally controlled by censorship and politicians. However, performers through undertaking their counterculture actions were actually coming closer to existing institutions, galleries, theatres and clubs in order to continue more successfully in art. Having initially existed outside of a conventional frame, performance art unexpectedly became a mighty power, able to express important and critical statements.

The artists performing in Kalisz in November are some of the most interesting representatives of performance worldwide: Paweł Kwaśniewski, Irma Optimisti, Omar Ghayatt, Jeffery Byrd.

More at: http://tarasin.pl/en/miesiac-performance/

INSTRUMENTS OF WAR by Manuel Vason, Anne Seagrave, Dariusz Fodczuk, Stuart Brisley, Alastair MacLennan, Wladyslaw Kazmierczak & Ewa Rybska, Suka OFF, Helen Spackmann, Joshua Sofaer, Sachiko Abe, Ronald Fraser Monroe and Franko B.

Between March 22^nd and April 19^th in the gallery BWA Sokol, Nowy Sącz, Poland a photography exhibition by Manuel Vason was presented. It was titled RE-PERFORMANCE. Between performance and photography, and I had the pleasure to curate this exhibit. Since I am not in a position to write a critical text about an exhibition which I curated, I would like to merely document the show and the performances that took place during the opening. These were performances by Dariusz Fodczuk and Anne Seagrave – one of the artists featured in the exhibition.

During the exhibition photos of international cutting edge performance artists were shown: Stuart Brisley, Anne Seagrave, Alastair MacLennan, Władysław Kaźmierczak & Ewa Rybska, Suka OFFduo, Helen Spackmann, Joshua Sofaer, Sachiko Abe, Ronald Frazer Munroe and Franko B. In accordance with the spirit of the collaborative aspect of the photos, I treated the exhibition as a group show by Manuel Vason and the performance artists presented in the photos. An important element of the presentation were the displayed statements of these artists outlining their thoughts about the collaboration process with Manuel Vason.

The full version of the text was published at: http://livinggallery.info/text/vason

Ephemeral Fixed – pre-event at F.A.I.T (Krakow)

March 14th, 2012 at F.A.I.T (Krakow) – pre-event of the “Ephemeral Fixed” event featuring: Daniel Dida and Linda van Dalen (performance) and the show of documentation by Anne Seagrave, Wladyslaw Kazmierczak & Ewa Rybska and an independent video work by Peter Valyi. 

Ephemeral Fixed. Ephemeral art – history documented.

Ephemeral art is well established in art history, but it has not been well researched and described in Central Europe yet. Ephemeral fixed. Ephemeral art – history documented is a project focusing on all kinds of artistic practice in Visegrad countries, after which only the documentation of ephemeral art remains. Artists and theoreticians from all generations take part in it. The event comprises of presentations of the documentation of the artist run galleries, performance art shows, as well as a Symposium and discussion panel and a publication.

Invited artists:

Jiri Suruvka, Marek Prazak, Jana Zimcikova (CZ)
Jozsef R. Juhasz, Daniel Dida, Linda van Dalen (SK)
Balint Sombati, Imre Denes, Peter Valyi (HU)
Jozef Robakowski, Adam Klimczak, Anka Lesniak (PL)

Theoreticians:

Lukasz Guzek (PL), Jozef Cseres (SK), Katalin Balazs (HU), Tomas Pospiszyl (CZ)

http://ephemeralfixed.eu

The review of the festival by Katalin Balazs: http://livinggallery.info/text/ephemeral

Power of Label vs. Creativity – Another Performance Art Night at F.A.I.T! (Krakow)

Invited artists: Anne Seagrave, Antoni Karwowski, Alastair MacLennan, Dariusz Fodczuk

Performers more and more often avoid grandioso festivals and mainstream art centres in order to appear in new, unknown and low-budget places. It is all about eliminating the artificial relationship between artist and institution and the game that is often a consequence: which form may an artwork adopt in order to comply with a tangle of institutional bans, limits, directions and suggestions? Certainly the artist is someone important for an institution but at the same time he/she is a threat.

An artist does not become someone anticipated, his/her coming is not a celebration but moreover a routine element of the programme that creates the image of an institution. In the case of live art, this tension is a negative factor and is dangerous for the art presented. Mutual distrust has existed for decades. Important galleries avoid performers and create false and arrogant opinions about this kind of art in order to have a comfortable situation. Their peace of mind is at the expense of fulfilling the statute mission of the gallery that should be the bringing of honest information to the public which reflects the actual tendencies in art practice. But this artistic truth we see sharply only when we invite performers to our own town, at our own expense.

“No budget” events are hard to produce. They require a lot of conducive circumstances. The biggest problem is to assure the artist that his/her arrival, work and money spent will be rewarded with absolute freedom, friendship, openness and the presence of an audience. Only such a situation as this can become a good environment for artistic creativity. The artist must be convinced, that he/she won’t encounter a pressure similar to the institutional pressure that attempts to control his/her art.

Another no budget performance art night took place in F.A.I.T, a very non-standard club/bar with an old, overgrown garden. The entrance from the street is vaguely marked and practically unnoticeable for people who are not connected to the space. The open status of the venue and the standard technical equipment available are a silent invitation for performers and curators to participate.

The entire text was published at http://livinggallery.info/text/power_of_label